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9.9.07

Slugs In My Garden (Green Thumb Sunday)

Recently after some heavy rains I went out into my garden to collect nasturtium seeds. As I was lifting up some of the foliage, to look for fallen seeds on the ground, I noticed a few slugs. My first reaction was "Cool! A new bug to photograph" but then it dawned on my that having these garden pests in the garden wasn't such a good thing.

I've probably have had slugs in my garden for a while and just haven't noticed the damage they cause to plants because I over plant. I stuff as many plants as I can on my tiny urban lot that sometimes a damaged or missing plant will go unnoticed for a couple of days.

One the one hand I'm dreading the future of my urban garden and the addition of these garden pests. While on the other hand I'm having fun hunting slugs and photographing them and seeing their arrival in my garden as a sign of success. Since their population seems to be minuscule I've researched methods of non-toxic slug control that I've posted on my other gardening blog.

My favorite method of non-toxic slug control that I didn't include in that entry has to be going out to the garden with a bamboo skewer and lancing them. I then take the "slug kabob" and place it on the fence so the birds can eat them. I know it's a little cruel but perhaps it will serve as a deterrent to any slugs looking to make my garden their home.

25 comments:

I have spent all year killing slugs around 10 a night and some of them are like snakes. I tend to chop them in half with scissors, then leave them their and other slugs come along and eat them, then they get chopped.The only problem is that you get big piles og slime....

I have plenty of these and other mollusks in my garden, as we had this year plenty of rain as well. They are definitly a pest for gardeners!And you shot definitly one of the best photos I have seen of these creatures! The best non-toxic method to fight them is to have plants in your garden slugs don´t like. But I am afraid there are too many fashionable plants (Hosta, delphinums etc.) it is hard to do without them for most of us.

I didn't have slugs until I brought my plants over to a friends for "plant sitting" on her porch while away one summer. Yikes was that a mistake. Slugs are worse than ever & I frequently hunt them in the early morning or after a rain! Usually drowning them in salt water mixture or just smashing them with a long spoon. I liked the suggestion of using scissors to cut them in half. I so enjoy hearing that you skewer them & then let the birds eat them! I so relate!

Slug kebobs - now that is a new one for me! I used to pick them and put them on a wooden board. My son would come along with a salt shaker and watch them wither up. I decided that this was probably not a good thing and then just threw them in a bowl of soapy water. There aren't many slugs here thankfully, although I'd rather have them than earwigs (luckily they don't overwinter here).

I'm totally going to play the devil's advocate here, but a great method of supremely toxic slug control is to douse your plants with anything that contains metaldehyde. You may now proceed in your hating me for suggesting the use of pesticide to kill poor defenseless slugs.

Hello everyone. Thanks for stopping by and commenting on this entry. I didn't know a post about slugs would garner so many comments. I guess every gardener can relate. :0)

Chris,

Chemicals have their place. Did you know how metaldehyde was discovered as a slug killer?

You can also use a miracle slug killer called metaldehyde, which was originally developed as a solid fuel for camp cookstoves. One day in the 1930s some campers in South Africa left a can of metaldehyde out all night and awoke to discover it surrounded by recently deceased slugs and snails. Aha, said the campers, slugicide!

omg, that photo is so, so awesome. The damn slug looks as sweet as if it were a snail in a children's book! I tend to get snails, not slugs, and while the slug kabab really really appeals to me, I couldn't bear ripping the slugs out of their houses and then skewering them. I mean, beating a dead horse, adding insult to injury, and all that.

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